


Pickpocket

by EmberForge



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 11:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15840543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberForge/pseuds/EmberForge
Summary: Sometimes, Nott steals things.Sometimes, she does the reverse.





	Pickpocket

Sometimes, Nott steals things. 

Shiny buttons that catch her eye. Small trinkets that dangle carelessly from belts. The odd coin or two, to be sure to have something to eat, and when that's unsuccessful she'll attempt to directly steal the food itself. 

It's not something she can control, exactly. It's an itch that she has to scratch. There's always been a feeling of wanting _more _, constantly lingering just under the surface of her skin. It's an empty sort of feeling, and she hates it. For the longest time, it seemed that it would only go away with purloined goods. Stealing is an art, and she considers herself an expert at it.__

__Recently, though, she occasionally finds herself doing the reverse._ _

__It starts with Caleb; of course it does. The coat can be decieving, but she knows he's far too thin, so she's only too happy to slip the food she had just been eating in his hand while he reads so that he absentmindedly munches at it as he flips to the next page. It's all about giving him pieces of the things that will help make him whole. Passing him bits of thread that she finds so that he can patch up the ever present holes in his coat. Using her money, once they've started getting a steady enough supply of it, to sneakily refill Caleb's stock of paper and incense._ _

__Molly enjoys anything as colourful and shiny as him. Whenever Nott finds a little trinket lost on the floor of a tavern that doesn't fit with her collections, she gives it to him. She finds a bright scrap of cloth torn across a fence, and he happily takes it and uses it to fix a hole torn into his trousers from their most recent battle. The gaudy dangling earring she finds in the changing room of the bathhouse almost immediately gets added to the collection adorning Molly's horns. Every time, he flashes her a sincere grin as he makes what she gives him a part of himself._ _

__Fjord, Nott realizes, is a man who enjoys his comforts. She'd noticed for a while that he liked to fidget with his hands under the table whenever conversation lulled in whatever tavern they were staying at, and one day it suddenly clicks as to why. The next day she managed to find a small length of rope that she gives to him. It's too short to do anything with, really, but from then on she sees him practicing knots on it whenever he gets restless or bored. When buying a meat pie from a street vendor, she manages to haggle until a couple small orange citrus fruits are thrown in as well. Nott takes one bite and can't stand the tang of the taste, but Fjord thanks her profusely when she gives it to him, and tells her it tastes like home._ _

__Jester, well, she's easy. Pastries are always a favourite, and Nott's really good at bargaining for the day old ones that the baker's about to throw away. They're all the same to Jester. Nott's pretty good with natural substances and what you can do with them, so it's a common gift to give Jester berries and clays and flowers that can be made into pigment. She's always thankful, especially when they're on the road for a while and her supplies are running low. Whenever Nott has something she's not sure of what to do with, she knows for certain that Jester will find some kind of terrific use for it._ _

__Beau is a bit more difficult. She doesn't have many hobbies, and she's not into decorating herself or other things. Nott quickly realises that the practical route is the way to go. She'll watch from a distance as Beau grins in surprise when finding extra bandages in her pack, or some new ribbon to replace the fraying one that keeps her hair tidy. A little extra liquor in her flask is always appreciated too, and gods know that Nott has some to spare. She always manages to give Beau the things she needs when she needs them most._ _

__When Caduceus comes along, it's clear he gets joy from the little things in life. Again, Nott's not too bad with plants, so anything interesting and edible she comes across goes to him. Whatever he can't use for tea usually ends up coming back around to everyone else in some sort of dish he's prepared for them all. He's definitely a fan of nature, and so Nott brings him unconventional things she finds too. Interesting bugs she finds, or little animal bones. He takes great enjoyment from inspecting all of them, and the latter often ends up being buried into the earth after a brief contemplation of its life. Nott worries for a moment that such gifts might not be appreciated after the first time she brings him a tiny mouse skull she found under a bush, but seeing the serenity on his face after he held its funeral, she realises that he's glad to cherish these creatures lives, and help them on their way to their next destination._ _

__Yasha isn't around as much, but she's perhaps the simplest to figure out. Nott gives her the prettiest and most interesting flowers she can find. Big, brilliant yellow ones that were planted in the clearing they stayed the night in. Dark blue, bell shaped ones she found near the edge of the swamp. Occasionally she'll give them directly to the barbarian herself, but most of the time she likes to sneak them into Yasha's book. She is a rogue, after all- she can be sneaky when she wants to be. The first time Yasha returns to the group after Molly's death and finally opens up her book for the to find a purple snapdragon pressed into the pages, Nott sees her smile for the first time since everything that happened. That makes it all worth it._ _

__She's never had people to do these things for before now. It's nice. And that empty feeling is more often filled with the warmth of friendship, fondness, and a sense of acceptance._ _


End file.
